Fourthyear Director Nicole Guillemet Has Been Striving To Sharpen Focus Of Miami International Film Festival

Tickets go on sale Feb. 17 for a 10-day event beginning March 3 in which Miami will host some of the best of independent films and the most talented people who make them at the Miami International Film Festival, a major festival placing special emphasis on screening films made in Latin America, Spain and Portugal.

Beginning her fourth year as festival director is a 20-year veteran of the arts who immediately before coming to Miami was co-director of the prestigious Sundance Film Festival and vice president of the Sundance Institute.

She is French-born Nicole Guillemet, who with her team based at the downtown Miami Wolfson Campus of Miami Dade College, under whose aegis the festival is presented, this year is bringing more than 110 films from documentaries to dramatic features having their world premieres.

A series of collateral events will be a part of the festival – which last year attracted more than 60,000 people – including seminars and what Ms. Guillemet dubs "encuentros," where producers from Latin America can meet with US film representatives to discuss works in progress, as she discusses in this interview with Miami Today international editor Michael Hayes. This is an excerpt from the weekly profile article published in Miami Today. To read the entire article in full, order this issue or subscribe to the print edition of Miami Today.